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10/2/13

Name Skeletons

I love name art for many reasons, but the primary reason is because each person's project comes out completely different than everyone else's based solely on the shape of their name. Here's my version of the classic name art skeleton. Tip your head to the left to see my name if it isn't readily apparent.

Fold the white paper in half lengthwise and lightly write your name in cursive along the fold line. If your name has a letter that drops below the fold line (like the y in my name), skip the dropped part and continue with the 'tail' of the letter. Keeping the paper folded, cut out the name, staying about 1/8" away from the actual letters.

If you are making this project with children who haven't learned cursive yet, simply have them print their name and then draw a bubble around the letters to connect them before cutting them out. When cutting, you can choose whether to cut out interior spaces (like my d or Trevor's e and o). It's too difficult for young children, but older ones can do so if they want. I did and Trevor didn't.

After cutting out the name, open it up and place it vertically on the black paper. Use scraps to cut out arms, legs, hands, and feet. To make the skull, fold a small piece of white paper in half before cutting. This makes it easy to create a symmetrical shape. If you have a small hole punch, one quick punch on the folded skull will give you two perfectly round and perfectly placed eyes.

Like I said, each name gives a completely different look. Even the way you orient a name makes a huge difference. Here is my my name facing the two different directions. It took me a long time to decide which I liked better before settling on the one on the right.

Here's Trevor's finished skeleton. You may wonder why it is holding a sword.

He was inspired by this minifig.

He really wanted me to add a weapon to my skeleton. I'm not a weapons kind of person, so I jokingly cut out a small butter knife for my skeleton. It made Trevor laugh and he agreed that my skeleton could stay weapon-free.